DeeDee Baldwin, engagement librarian at Mississippi State University, has spent the last six years researching the first Black legislators in the state.
“As faculty librarians, we’re allowed to research whatever interests us, really. And I got interested in these legislators,” Baldwin told The Dispatch. “And at the time, I was the history librarian anyway, so I just sort of got into it that way.”
Through her research, Baldwin created a list of the first 162 Black representatives that served in legislative roles during the 19th century.
Baldwin’s dream, she said, was to commemorate and recognize these men – who served both in the Mississippi State Legislature and in Congress – with historic markers, but she wasn’t sure how she’d ever have the chance without enough money to do it.
During the summer, she found that chance. Working with Chuck Yarborough, a history teacher at Mississippi School for Science and Mathematics, Baldwin applied for and received a $100,000 grant from the Monument Lab, a nonprofit based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Yarborough said he and Baldwin are working with the nonprofit to propose the creation and installation of 22 markers honoring the 162 legislators by name in 21 counties across the state, including in Oktibbeha, Lowndes and Noxubee counties.
“A lot of people don’t know this history, and Reconstruction is a part of Mississippi history that doesn’t get covered a lot,” Baldwin said. “You kind of skip straight from slavery to the Civil Rights Movement, (but) there was this whole era, there were these decades in between there, where you had this great period of revolution and accomplishment.”
In Oktibbeha County, the marker will recognize Anderson Boyd, Benjamin Chiles, David Higgins and Randle Nettles from the county. The marker will also name J.W. Caradine, who represented Clay County.
The Lowndes County marker will recognize Robert Gleed, Jesse Freeman Boulden, J.H. Glenn, Elzy A. Richards and Robert Thompson.
While over in Noxubee County, the marker will recognize Thomas A. Cotton, Alexander K. Davis, Marshall McNeese, Lawrence W. Overton and Isham Stewart.
Because these markers will be placed at county courthouses, Baldwin said they require approval from each county’s board of supervisors through a resolution of support. Lowndes County supervisors approved the resolution during the board’s regular Monday meeting, while Oktibbeha and Noxubee boards have already approved resolutions.
‘A more complete understanding’
The markers themselves will not come at any additional cost to the counties and will be entirely covered by the grant funding, Baldwin said. Any remaining funds left over will be put toward programming events in each of the counties, she said.
“The public programming will look similar to things that we do at MSMS,” Yarborough said, noting Tales from the Crypt and Eighth of May Emancipation Celebration performances as examples. “… But they’ll be produced in the local communities, and we’re partnering with schools and arts institutions … in those local communities to make that programming develop over the course of the next year.
Baldwin said she has already received approval from about half of the counties and is moving forward to submit 11 of the proposed historical markers to the Mississippi Department of History and Archives Board of Trustees at its December board meeting.
After that, she said it should take about six months for the markers to be created and sent to their respective counties before they’re installed by the Mississippi Department of Transportation, Yarborough said.
After the first batch is approved, the hope is to request support from the remaining counties during summer 2026 with the goal of installing markers in 2027, Yarborough said.
“All of the state historic markers emphasize and celebrate important historic figures or places, to the local community and to the state,” Yarborough said. “So acknowledging the contributions of these early legislators and their contributions in a really difficult time in Mississippi, I think, is important for us to gain a more complete understanding of our entire community and state history.”
Board President Trip Hairston, said the importance of the legislators and their history is something that goes beyond Lowndes County, which is why the board felt it was appropriate to add to the courthouse.
“We’re not going to put just any marker out there in the courthouse yard,” Hairston said. “This is a little bit different in the fact that it is a historical marker commemorating those (representatives) in the 22 counties. (It’s a) statewide initiative, so it’s not just necessarily a local thing.”
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